The Dust Chronicles - The First Wizarding War
by Astrapi Gnosis
Summary: There's a different side to the First Wizarding War. It's not just England. It's around the world. And who knew science could somehow be related to magic? A/N: There are several elements such as Dust and daemons that are borrowed from Philip Pullman, but they're all different in some way. The anatomy of some creatures & designs of some machines/robots are borrowed from StarCraft.
1. Prologue

There was only darkness in the undisturbed tomb. Until the being came.

An aura of violet light shined unto the runes engraved into the walls; hieroglyphics, preserved in color. An eerie clicking noise emanated from within the ground; the cloaked and hooded figure, undaunted, continued walking, examining. Fixed on the figure's right forearm was a blade, albeit an abnormal blade; to put it simply, it glowed. It was the blade giving off the purple aura. Indeed, the blade itself was a beam of smoking purple light, focused into the shape of a long blade. A loud moan issued from the walls the figure examined. The figure, paying no attention, proceeded to think out loud (quite literally; having no mouth, the figure communicated by carefully controlled thoughts):

"_The Dark Lord rose, as was foretold._" The drawings on the wall, horribly abstract (it was Egyptian, after all), depicted a nose-less face, eerie in the dancing lights, with slits of red light for eyes; a bald head contained it all. The bald figure was robed; in its extended hand held a wand, raised in combat. Several dead bodies littered the ground. The figure moved along, now dawning light on a new scene: A very small human-looking thing, obviously an infant, sat on the floor while the bald figure pointed its wand at the child. There was a blast of green light. Then all that laid upon the floor was a mess of black robes and a crying baby. All the while, the figure read off the top row of hieroglyphics.

"_The Chosen One, infant and last scion of the Potters, will bring his first downfall._" Another scene; this time a red-haired woman next to a black-haired man standing together, smiling innocently.

"_But for the Chosen One to emerge, the Evans girl must marry the Potter boy. Nothing can be in their way, lest creation as we know it burn._"

The figure took off its hood, revealing wrinkled, gray skin. Glowing, white-less blue eyes, the only facial feature (there were no ears, no mouth, no nose, no hair), rested near the high cheekbones. The alien face was rounded off with a somewhat rounded chin (though the lower part of the face was thinner than the top).

"_The question is, does this "Chosen One" come to save?_" the figure's eyes narrowed, "_…or to destroy?_"

A swirl of golden Dust. A wave of Darkness; the innocent swirl soon became a maelstrom of black particles.

This all took place very fast inside the figure's mind. Unpleasantly surprised, he turned around and growled mentally. The ground positively rumbled. The figure looked around in a predatory gaze, anticipating. Then, the ground cracked; from the hole protruded a hand, its skin gray from decomposing; muscles were showing in places. With lightning speed, an Inferius burst from the ground, leaving a huge hole behind; but the hole soon began to close…

Several more Inferi burst from the ground in manners similar to the first one. The figure raised his blade arm, clenching his fists, backing into a defensive position…

There was an uneasy moment of stillness, however brief. Then the first Inferius lunged towards the figure with incomprehensible speed.

As it turned out, though, the Inferius wasn't fast enough for the figure. In an instant, the blazing purple blade was in the neck of the abomination. Then the whole swarm advanced.

The figure backed into a corner, his eyes now slits in annoyance. The Inferi was no more than a minor inconvenience, but how did they escape his notice when he first entered the tomb? To think that his senses were dulling would be impossible, not to mention a dire insult. The only explanation was some type of ritual or runes; spells would have worn off over the years. Unless…

The figure's face sagged, frowning (even though he didn't have a mouth). Unless someone had been here recently… But who? As far as he was concerned, he was the only living sentient being who knew about the tomb and its dark secrets. To think that someone else knew… He mentally shuddered. But the Inferi weren't about kill themselves off.

The figure brought his blade down on one, two, three monsters, then jumped over the rest, landing on the opposite side of the room. The Inferi were confused for but a moment; they soon swarmed towards their target's new location. The figure silently cursed, then lifted his left hand (which had two long fingers and two long, opposing thumbs); he gave a burst in his Dust field, and a blast of golden light protruded from his left palm. What happened next would deeply upset the figure.

As if the ground was sentient, a wall of sand rose from the ground to absorb the force of the attack; unable to bear the whole might, it was blown to pieces and scattered harmlessly over the bodies of the Inferi.

The figure silently cursed again. Unable to see another alternative, he sank his blade into the neck of yet another Inferius. But he didn't stop there. He twisted his arm, and the head came off; he turned around and decapitated yet another couple Inferi. He jumped and landed on the shoulder of one of the monstrosities, decapitated the monster, and disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

He disappeared.

Reappearing with a shower of luminous golden Dust on ceiling (he somehow defied gravity), he turned off his blade; the only source of light within the chamber was gone. But the Inferi did not need light to hunt; and neither did the being. He snapped his fingers on his right hand twice, and four needles, now the only source of light, made of golden Dust appeared in his palm. He flicked his wrist, and the needles promptly flew to bury itself in the neck of four separate Inferi. But it didn't stop there. The needles exploded in a blast of blinding blue light (the sudden change in light level was enough to upset any human), tossing bodies like ragdolls against the unforgiving walls. But the Inferi were relentless. They began to rouse; the figure, seeing this, materialized yet another needle and sent it straight into the ground. A transparent sphere, originating from the needle, made of shimmering blue light, incarcerated the corpses within. The figure leaped from the ceiling onto the ground and landed with a mental grunt.

Then came a soft chuckle.

"Nox'riel… I knew you'd find your way here… Eventually."

"_Who's there? Show yourself!_" the figure, Nox'riel, mentally snarled. Again, that soft chuckle.

"But why would I do that? It's so comfortable here, in the Darknessssssssssssssss…" the voice trailed off.

Nox'riel frowned again, his eyes narrowing.

"_A game of Shadows is one that two can play…_"

With that, Nox'riel gradually disintegrated into sand particles, blown off by some nonexistent wind.


	2. Chapter 1 - Physics Is Frustrating

Author's Note: I would presume that the majority of you viewers were redirected from Hostility Awaits. If not, go ahead and please check out my other story. I hope you enjoy and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE with a HUGE BRIGHT red cherry on top REVIEW! I can't say this enough: REVIEWS MAKE MY DAY! :D Anyway, this is a re-upload of chapter 1. I just fixed some things I wanted fixed and HERE YOU GO! ENJOY! LIKE AND FAVOURITE! SUBSCRIBE! Wait, that's YouTube stuff. Nevermind. :P

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The door to the brightly lit room abruptly opened. A figure stepped promptly into the room, shutting the door behind. A silver mist figure slipped in with the figure's feet.

There were men and women around the table, positioned roughly at the center of the room. They turned their heads to the new arrival.

"I apologize for my lateness," the figure said, taking her hood off, revealing an old woman's face, lined but energetic. Rectangular glasses were perched upon her nose, and her shoulder-length gray hair fell neatly so that her forehead was showing. "A little bit of minor difficulties along the way."

"That's quite fine," a plum man said, standing from the table. "The majority of us has just arrived as well, so we were not able to venture into conversation too deep yet." He gestured a chair, smiling. "Please, do take a seat."

Andis Li smiled.

"Thank you, Carter."

She strode across and took the seat, taking in her surroundings. The silver mist followed at her heels. The room was mostly marble white, as was the rest of the building. Lighting was plenty, in the form of numerous modern-looking lights in the ceiling. Boards and sheets of paper trashed the rest of the room.

"So," the man named Carter said, rubbing his hands together, having the air of one being presented a considerable feast after years of starvation. "I believe we are all here? Yes, let me see…" He muttered to himself. "We have Professor Li, we have Ms. Grass, yes, and the Chemistry Department, two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, and yes, I believe we are all present." He made to sit down, but then thought that it would be more appropriate to remain standing, and stood up again, with an obvious air of awkwardness.

"So," he repeated himself, "I think we start with the Technological Department, yes. Very well. Mr. Anders, if you will?" He sat down at this.

"Thank you, Carter," Mr. Anders said, rising. His face was hard, set. Thick glasses sat on his long nose. Years of work has set premature lines into his face, making him seem at least ten years older than he really is. "As most of you should remember, our last model of the Aiur'xon was a complete disaster, breaking down to Dust connection errors, Dust Shield malfunctions, and the like often on the battlefield. In this new model, we have supposedly fixed that, and have already performed numerous tests on the stability, although not all planned tests have been conducted yet. The Magical Department, which has aided us greatly in the creation of our project, has also made some advancements in their own field. Ms. Grass, if you please?"

Ms. Grass, who was a young looking woman in a blue robe with a pony-tail, took Dr. Anders's place as the one standing.

"Thank you, Philip. Our Department has made a giant leap in the subject of statue wards, and we await to see further results. We have currently produced a ward stone set nearly five times stronger than that of Hogwarts - " There were gasps around the table; " – and we are performing periodical tests on the wards." She sat down, finishing her report.

"Splendid," Carter said, standing up again. "Now, if you will, Professor Li will now give us the summary of the last skirmish we have had with Lord Voldemort's forces." There were one or two sharp intakes of breath at the name as Carter sat down once more.

Andis stood up. Vivid images rushed to her head.

"In our last encounter with Lord Voldemort's forces; The encounter took place on a Muggle street, which, thankfully, was quite deserted at the time, two days ago. A few Death Eaters were making sport of Muggles, and our eyes and ears informed us immediately. An operation team was sent out immediately, along with what little functioning Aiur'xon we had left - " Dr. Anders coughed at this; " – to engage and capture the Death Eaters. A fight quickly broke out, and Death Eaters began to Apparate in like mad, due to a failure to place precautionary Charms on our part. We had to send in reinforcements, but the Death Eaters, realizing that the fight was lost, retreated quickly. We were only able to capture one Death Eater, and since he was actually stupid enough to be caught - " Chuckles broke the air; " – it can be deduced that he was in possession of absolutely no valuable information. But we interrogated him anyways, and, of course, we were correct in saying that he was useless. One of the two Aiur'xon was destroyed in the skirmish, but, because an emergency Dust field ejection was built in the Aiur'xon, the pilot was not lost and merely experienced a near-death experience. All Muggles had their memories modified. That is all." She promptly sat down.

Carter, who this time has decided to remain seated, gestured a man and the end of the table, who then rose.

"As powerful as our technology may be," Roger Williams said, "the Germans have not rested either in their pursuit of perfection. In one of our latest skirmishes with the Germans, we have found that the Germans have now achieved the technology to produce from infantry units spells over three times stronger than a normal spell. As a result, the Aiur'xon's Dust Shields are completely rendered useless. The spell would simply fly past the shield and hit the Aiur'xon straight on."

Dr. Grass spoke out.

"Over three times stronger?" Seeing Williams's grim nod of acknowledgement, she placed her hand over her chest and allowed herself to sink deeper into her chair, her eyes closed as if to deny this horrendous truth.

"Only the Aiur'kuras would be able to deflect a spell of that magnitude," Andis commented. "It would crush through any other part of our forces. William, what exactly happened during that battle?"

"We were forced to retreat. We would have been slaughtered like pigs. We _were_ being slaughtered anyway, but you get my meaning. They were too powerful."

There was a foreboding silence hanging in the room.

"Well," Andis said in one last attempt at optimism, "we'll simply have to make our Dust Shields more powerful, eh? Shouldn't take us _too_ long. I'll get the entire Physics Department on it. Really shouldn't take too long."

"So it's settled, then?" asked Philip. "Professor Li's department will be tasked with strengthening our Dust Shields?"

"I suppose so," the silver mist figure said, for the first time since entering the room.

Carter chuckled at this. "Leave it up to Lyra to break it straight to you, eh?"

"Incidentally," the silver mist named Lyra (who was actually Andis's daemon; in other words, her counterpart) piped up, "would you like to show us all the new model of the Aiur'xon, Philip?"

"No," Philip replied decisively. "It's near completion, but we're not releasing the model yet."

"And I think that that is all we have to share with each other?" asked Carter. Shakes of head about the table confirmed Carter's belief.

"Very well, then!" Carter said promptly. "Let us dismiss." The people around the table began to shuffle about, getting up. "I bid you all good night."

Andis followed the general flow of people out the door. The night's meeting was fairly meaningless, the only important thing being the new model of the Aiur'xon and the Germans' new-found weapon.

While most of the people took a left turn at the hallway, Andis and Lyra (who was assuming the shape of a mist-formed rabbit then) took the right, for they still have business to take care of. Andis and Lyra thus marched down the bright hallway, lined with wires. Taking the second left, they entered the Physics Department.

It was a spacious place, though not very high, being two meters high at the very most. However, it was very long. A lengthy and bright corridor led down from the door, with several doors on the side placed at regular intervals. An elevator stood at the end of the trek.

Upon entering the elevator, Andis pressed the fifth floor. The machine revved up and came to life.

At the end of the fifth floor corridor was Andis's office. She sped up her pace to a fresh sprint, and made for the door.

Her office was not terribly large, and only composed of half a dozen cabinets full of scientific equipment, a writing table, a coffee machine, and a dozen bookshelves worth of information. On one of the walls was a speaker, used to distribute information around the Department quickly and without too much trouble. She pushed and held a button and spoke into the speaker:

"Good evening, all. It's not eight yet, so all of you should still be in your offices; if you're not, make sure your fellow physicists fill you in (and notice how I'm addressing those who are actually absent), because what I'm about to say is very important.

"First, allow me state that, starting tomorrow, our general topic of research will no longer be the reason for Dust settlement on humans; it will be Dust Shield projectors. I understand that we already have a relatively powerful model; however, recent events have called for the change in our topic of research; there will be a meeting tomorrow morning at ten to specify the reason. I repeat: There will be a meeting tomorrow morning at ten. If you miss it, I will be very angry at you. Don't miss it. A meeting at ten, tomorrow morning. I just said it three times. You now have no reason to miss it.

"Second, I thank you all for the good job you are doing on a daily basis. You will not believe how proud I am of our Department.

"You'll all be leaving shortly, in thirty seconds, to be exact, so I won't delay you any longer. I bid you all good night." With that, she released the button.

She walked to her desk and collapsed into her chair. There were so many thoughts swirling about in her head… Why was the integral describing the Dust behavior around humans so difficult to solve? How could a simple trigonometric function baffle even the most skilled of scientists? And to think that she would be leaving this realm to search for a better Dust Shield projector starting tomorrow…

She took out her wand from her cloak and Summoned her cup; after receiving it, she Charmed the cup to dance towards the coffee machine, and, after a few seconds, she received a hot cup of deliciousness.

She took a deep sip; the liquid stimulated her taste senses. Years of drinking has left her invincible against caffeine. Feeling slightly better, she set off to work.

The integral was as impossible as ever… But was it possible to simplify the cosine to a simpler term? Though this would induce a whole new equation, perhaps it was worth it…

Her pencil set off in her hands, dancing across the sheets of paper. From time to time, Lyra would point out a careless calculation mistake on Andis's part, and Andis would promptly return to the said equation and fix the error. And so her brain worked on and on and on until –

"It's ten," Lyra pointed out. "Let's call it a day, alright?"

"No," Andis muttered, still working. "Today's the last day in which we'll have time to work on this. I want to get to the bottom of this."

"You can't!" Lyra protested indignantly. "Three months' worth of work by the entire Department has failed to achieve an explanation, and you think you can come up with it in a night?"

"You never know until you try," Andis retorted. "I'm going to devote tonight to solving for this."

"Fine," Lyra finally said after a long silence, during which Andis worked on anyways, "you can work for another hour, but then we'll really need to go. I don't want to be the last in the building."

Andis gave no reply to this. Neither Andis nor Lyra was stranger to working in late.

The hour that Lyra had promised Andis passed quickly, so quickly that Andis suspected that Lyra somehow sped up time.

"It's time to go," Lyra said yet once more. "We're going to leave, _now._"

Andis, who was by then thoroughly irritated by physics, threw her pencil down in frustration at science. Why did the brain have to take such a peculiar shape? She stretched herself, yawned at the same time. Then, feeling a rush of sleepiness, she quickly gobbled down the rest of her coffee, stood up, grabbed her bag, and made for the door, Lyra at her heels, as always.

"That was fast," Lyra observed, her little feet carrying her at the pace of Andis's walk. "What made you give in?"

"I'm frustrated at physics," Andis replied, nearing the elevator. She wished that she could Apparate within the building. "I'm quitting."

In a matter of seconds, Andis was back in the main corridor, walking up to the side of the building, outside which a small train was awaiting her. The automatic door slid open before her, and she exited into the night breeze.

The air was cool, and a wind was blowing her cloak. The moon drifted majestically about in the cloud-ridden sky, looming over the entire building, shining its natural light upon all it surveyed. She walked lethargically and slowly along the raised pathway; it was at least thirty meters high. There was a small series of seats, sheltered by a lone ceiling, not far ahead; a train stood ready at the stop's right. A machine placed at head-level stood next to the seats, to call for the train, should it be absent. She neared the train entrance, which sensed her presence and immediately opened up. She entered the train, which was white on the interior and brightly lit by lights in the ceiling. A row of seats sat on each side of the train, with another two rows of seats facing the opposite directions in the middle. Small windows were placed periodically about the walls. Andis took a seat on the left side of the train, Lyra in her lap, and a cool, disembodied female voice, pre-recorded, spoke:

"All passengers, please make sure that your feet, arms, and any other body part are completely inside the train, as the train will be moving shortly. The train will be leaving in five seconds." Then came a series of short beeps:

_Beep_

_ Beep_

_ Beep_

_ Beep_

_ Beep_

Andis felt a low rumble from the train; the train had begun to accelerate. Soon the images outside the windows were but a blur.

She felt so very sleepy…. But she mustn't sleep. Imagine what the others would think should they come into the train the next morning and find none other than their very own Physics Department Head sleeping in the seats.

After about ten excruciating minutes, during which time Andis fought every urge to fall asleep, the train finally began to decelerate; it was approaching its destination. Once the train completely stopped, the female voice came over again:

"The train has arrived at the destination. Please patiently wait for the doors to open, and please do not hurt anyone in the process of exiting. Please remember to gather all of your belongings. The doors will be opening shortly."

The doors opened not "shortly", but immediately after the female voice stopped talking. Andis gathered all her belongings and promptly left the train.

Nearly right outside the "train station" was a plain, circular platform, lit with miniature lights placed around the perimeter. The Apparition Platform.

Andis stepped onto the platform; it was one of the only places in the entire complex in which one could Apparate. Turning herself on the spot, she reappeared in a snowy forest.

The air was very cold; snow covered the lifeless ground. Tall trees absorbed what little nutrients there were in the ground. Bare rocks were exposed at some places. Andis walked on into the forest a bit, Lyra as a misty rabbit at her side. A little house began to appear; Andis neared it, and stepped into her humble dwelling.

She flipped the light switch; the lights came to life immediately, answering the call. The house was not much; it was not large, that was for certain. It consisted of merely a few rooms; one bathroom, one bedroom, a study, a kitchen, a dining room, and a main room, all of which were fairly small, except the study and the main room, which were relatively more spacious. The rooms were very clean; she made sure of that.

She made for the bathroom, positioned right outside the bedroom, and quickly brushed her teeth. As she was much too tired to take a bath, she immediately jumped into her bed and fell asleep, Lyra on the pillow.

She would wake up the next day in her work clothes, which she had forgotten to take off.


End file.
